Coco

Our cat has a poorly ear. I thought the awful ‘cat with no tail’ that attacked him at the w/e had bitten him. So this evening I decided I should take him to the vet. First I hid the cat basket in the downstairs’ loo ready for action. Then I lured Coco into the kitchen with sweet words and a cuddle. I felt such a traitor; he was purring and enjoying the attention until I took him into the loo. He started yowling and puffed himself up, with his tail like a bottlebrush! Took six attempts to get him in the basket. I tried lowering him in feet first and head first, then cornering him with the basket but he spreads out his claws and arches his back. Eventually I managed, at great personal risk, by holding his back legs and tail in one hand and his front paws in the other and lowering him into the basket, just about getting my hands out of the way to slam the door shut!
I had a very noisy trip to the vet’s, which luckily is not too far, with Coco yowling away beside me all the way.
Once at the vet's we were quickly ushered into the office and the nurse came in to see us. It took almost as long to get Coco out of the basket, as no doubt he knew exactly where he was and didn't like it at all. She took him to be weighed and then brought him back. If the door to the basket had been open Coco would have been in there like a shot! Anyway the vet came in and checked him over, looked in his ears and after cleaning some grunge out of his ears and looking at it under a microscope, the vet prescribed 2 shots and an ear wash with some drops to follow and a weeks worth of antibiotics. He had’nt been bitten but did have an infection. That'll be $189 thank you! Also Coco's teeth need cleaning and yearly shots are due, probably another $500 approx! Can't afford that at the moment! Must put toothbrush for coco on my shopping list. Coco got back into his basket without a struggle and we came home.

Carved pumpkins

carved pumpkins 
Left pumpkin is S's work and middle pumpkin is J's work.
As you can see I have not carved my pumpkin yet.
I still have to decide what to do with it.

before carving 

supermarket

My daughter is learning how to be a cashier at our local supermarket. Seemed like an easy job to me but it is surprisingly difficult. She had to learn 50 code numbers for various fruit and veg and scored a 95% on her test! I helped her learn the numbers with flash cards and repetition and still only remembered about 5 numbers by heart at the end of an hour!!
She's been reduced to tears by two customers so far. Very Rude Women thought that the wine she had bought was on sale (it wasn't) and demanded J correct the mistake. It was a matter of $5 and as a man it the line commented, remarking at the VRW's expensive designer purse, she looked as though she didn't need the money. against company policy, the manager gave the women her money back. I can't remember what Very Rude Man's problem was but apparently he is KNOWN in the market and always has a GO at the cashiers. VRM ended up apologizing and offered to give her a hug(!) which is also against company policy(!) Who knew!! But if you knew J you'd know why he wanted to hug her!! I hope J manages to get a thicker skin as I think she'll need it for this job.

new saucepan

I have to buy a new saucepan today. Last night just as I was going to bed S asked what he was going to have for lunch Thursday. I said I had'nt any thing readyn but would he like me to make some pasta. As he said that would do very nicely I put a pot of water on, waited for it to come to the boil and put in the pasta. When it boiled again, I turned it down to a simmer and went to bed! About midnight A came in from walking his friend's dog and said there was something awful in the kitchen and the whole house was starting to smell. I leapt out of bed, and ran down stairs, the pasta had boiled dry and was burning, I ran the pot under the cold water and dug out the burned pasta and sent it down the waste disposal. Oh the smell was indescribable!! It was a good thing that A had been up late or the whole house might have gone up in flames!!
Sprayed the house with Lysal as I thought that would help get rid of the smell. I tried to get back to sleep but it was a long time before I was able to stop thinking of what might have happened. S went to work without any lunch this morning!!

You scored as Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax. You are Granny Weatherwax! The most powerful witch on the Disc! You often use headology rather than actual spells, and are a very good witch, despite the fact that you sometimes wish you were a bad one. You play a mean game of Cripple Mr. Onion, and have a very powerful stare. By the way, you should really get that broom fixedâ?¦ Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 69% Carrot Ironfounderson 50% Death 44% Rincewind 44% The Librarian 38% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 38% Commander Samuel Vimes 31% Cohen The Barbarian 31% Lord Havelock Vetinari 13% Greebo 0% Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

door handle

The locking door handle on our back door has been getting more and more difficult to turn and I have been careful not to shut it behind me when going out into the garden for fear that it would shut and lock me out.

Any day I could have been stuck outside while going to get milk from the fridge in my nightie or feeding the birds a crust and noone would have been home to hear my cries!!

I have mentioned my concern a couple of times to S but as he seems to have no trouble with it, he nods his head with that knowing look and ignores me.

Today that all changed. S went out side, in his pjs, to check on his hanging baskets and lo and behold he could not get back into the kitchen. Luckily I was near by but before I let him in, through the family room's sliding door as I could not open the kitchen door, I laughed.
Later S went to Ace and got a new handle and fixed the door. Why do men wait until it breaks on them to fix something?

pain

This tiling is going to be the death of S. He sanded the floor and was down on his hands and knees for ages, the perfectionist that he is. Taking no notice of the pain he was having. Ofcourse he has pulled a muscle and is in terrible pain.
Can hardly walk and using his walking stick to get up and down the stairs.

PLAN

Bad news on the car repair. More extensive damage has been found under the bumper and the frame may be damaged. Repairs will more probably be done by the 14th.
Thinking about our minor flooding really puts perspective on what people in New Orleans must have suffered.
I saw a program on emergency preparedness today and am going to turn our downstairs bathroom into our emergency shelter and make a PLAN as advised. We had a fire close here last month and several small earthquakes so I don't think I'm panicing!

Bathroom Renovation

Today in the light we surveyed the damage and have decided that it was not that bad and that the water must only have been running for about 45 to 60 minutes.
The bathroom carpet is really beyond repair and I've always thought that having carpet in there was yucky. The water also ran down into my laundry room and flooded over into the downstairs hall but we've had a highpower fan on it all day and it seems to be drying nicely. So S and J went to home depot to price up having tiles instead. They chose some really nice ones and now S is having a quick lesson in Bathroom Renovation! If I like the results I might encourage more tile laying in the family room which I've always wanted tiled and that would mean the kitchen would have to be retiled too as we wouldn't be able to match what's already there. Gosh that could get expensive!! But it's an ill wind............

peaceful

Having a nice peaceful day, doing domestic things. In the afternoon I was pursueing my hobby of scrapbooking when all hell let loose. S yelled up the stairs for me to check the kids bathroom and I could tell by the panic in his voice that it was an
emergency. I dashed into the room and found to my horror that the toilet was overflowing, the carpet wet through to the hall and water gushing outside. S dashed outside and turned the water off at the mains. Water was pouring through the garage ceiling and down the electric light cables, so the electric had to go off too.
We did the best we could ripping out carpet and underlay and I think we saved the ceiling from further damage by our quick reactions. It got dark quickly and we got an extension cable and borrowed elctricity from our neighbour until S decided it was safe to turn the power back on. Shame really I was looking forward to an evening of scrabble round the camping gas lights!! But that aside it was a bit of a disaster.